HD - 'Enterprise' vs 'Regular' old HD

frankiefrankie
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Does anyone know the difference between a regular old HD and a 'Enterprise' series version? There's obviously quite a price difference!



Thanks for any info!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    frankiefrankie Posts: 381member
    Here's an example of what I mean.



    2 of the same HD from Seagate.



    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...0&name=Seagate



    Also, what is the difference between OEM and Retail?



    Thanks again for any info!
  • Reply 2 of 5
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Enterprise class drives are rated for 24/7 operation, with a specified "mean time between failure" (MTBF) -- typically 1 million hours.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    wmfwmf Posts: 1,164member
    Enterprise drives should only be used in RAID arrays; for non-RAID use regular drives.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    For the OEM vs Retail: Retail comes in a nice box with instructions and, typically, a manufacturers warranty. An OEM drive does not. Check if the vendor offers a warranty. In that case, the OEM is a much better deal.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    futurepastnowfuturepastnow Posts: 1,772member
    As Splinemodel says, the difference between OEM and retail is that OEM drives don't come in a box with accessories; from Newegg, at least, it's just a drive in an anti-static bag wrapped in bubble-wrap. They also have different warranties (usually the warranty is longer for OEM drives).



    Enterprise vs regular- usually there's absolutely no hardware difference. Enterprise drives have firmware optimizations for RAID and such, but you won't notice any performance difference. Sometimes enterprise drives have more cache, but obviously not always.
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